FEMTOCELL BASE STATION AND ACCESS MODE SWITCHING METHOD

摘要

A radio communication system includes a macrocell base station which can communicate with radio terminals using any of a plurality of carrier frequencies, and a femtocell base station provided in a macrocell in which the macrocell base station can communicate with the radio terminals, and capable of communicating with the radio terminals in an access limited mode in which only a specific radio terminal can access or a hybrid mode in which an access is not limited only to the specific radio terminal using any of the plurality of carrier frequencies. The femtocell base station includes: a measuring part which measures an uplink total received power from a radio terminal; a detecting part which detects a visitor macrocell radio terminal located in a vicinity of the femtocell base station operated by the access limited mode in accordance with the uplink total received power or an uplink interference signal power which can be derived from the uplink received power; and a control part which switches the femtocell base station from the access limited mode to the hybrid mode when the detecting part detects the visitor macrocell radio terminal. Accordingly, it is possible to improve the throughput for the visitor macrocell user.